Published: Apr 04, 2011, 01:32 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 19, 2014, 02:43 PM (IST)
By Vinay Anand
The idea of watching India lifting the World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium was always a dream, but the means of getting there was no easier than India’s chances that day at the end of the Sri Lankan innings.
Plonked in shorts with a couple of beers in my backpack, I set out to a friend’s house to watch the match with my buddies, not knowing that in an hour and a half from then, I would be at the Wankhede Stadium! One call did the trick!
And soon enough, I was on the train… News flooded in as Sri Lanka opened up and the euphoria inside me was catching up. To watch the World Cup final of a game that I revered was going to be monumental, personally. Witnessing either of Sachin Tendulkar or Muttiah Muralitharan lift the World Cup was not something I was going to miss.
Only a few hours back, was I watching the National Anthem on television and now, Tendulkar was fielding right in front of me!
I missed 22 overs before I finally got to catch the action – live! That equates up to about two hours. Yet, crowds outside the Wankhede Stadium waited in agony, despair and hope, a feeling that I could relate to until some time back. Through the crowd I ran and then through the security until finally the gates of the Wankhede opened for me.
The atmosphere inside was electrifying, inconceivable to those seeing it on their TV sets, crowds cheering with sly jeers at their Lankan counterparts alongside the proverbial “Jeetega bhai jeetega, India jeetega!” to go with it. The flavour of the occasion was cricket. The real thing began when Sehwag and Tendulkar arrived at the batting crease. I have seen plenty of matches over the years, but when Lasith Malinga ran in first ball, the roar was beyond the realms of imagination.
People flocked on the streets and the celebrations were all in readiness as India set out to create history.
And after several heart-stopping and crushing passages of play, the moment finally came when India became the first team to win the World Cup on home soil. It was inexplicable…unnerving and bone chilling. Even a 37 year old legend turned into a kid while the South African coach became a ‘honorary Indian’! The country of 1.6 billion people became a sea of joy ratifying that nothing unites the nation like cricket.
On a day that was filled with pandemonium, reverence, euphoria and elation, sorrow was a refreshment. Sorrow for the fact that Tendulkar might never play in ODIs again. The country was united by tears of joy, impromptu parades and riotous celebrations, lauding perhaps India’s greatest cricketing achievement.
(Vinay Anand, 17, has an uncanny eye for detail. He revers cricket – looking beyond the glamour into the heart of the game where true passion, perseverance and grit meet. To him, there is no greater joy than coming closer to the sport while exploring its intricacies through his writing and treading ahead to establish himself as a writer and presenter)
